Movement as Medicine

Everyone knows these days about the health benefits of exercise: reduced levels of stress, heart disease, blood pressure, cholesterol, etc. The focus still seems to be on weight maintenance more than on overall health and the illusion still exists that thin people are presumed healthier than overweight ones. Regardless of your weight or muscular tone we all need exercise to stay healthy. We were not meant to be stagnant at a desk, doing repetitive motions standing on an assembly or kitchen line, planted on a couch watching television, nor glued to a computer screen all day as many are. Stagnancy creates imbalance and disease. Movement is necessary for health, growth, and maintaining homeostasis. Movement is medicine.

Unlike the guilt and shame imposed on the public for not maintaining a perfect body I offer a simple inspiration for exercising or using movement as medicine...freedom. When we move our bodies we encourage our minds, hearts, and souls to open up to the infinite possibilities we are all capable of. Uncomfortable emotions are drawn up, shaken off, and transmuted. Whether your goal is to detoxify your lymph system specifically through rebounding or putting your ego before GodDess in yogic prostrations with your heart to the ground, liberation and a lightening of the spirit is the result.

With all forms of movement as medicine there is wisdom gleaned from learning its’ own particular natural rhythms. Aligning with the rhythms of movement inherent in nature like in surfing, skiing, swimming, rock climbing, or horseback riding teach us how to align with our own inner rhythms.

Ancient practices of movement as medicine abound as in yoga, Tai Chi, Tae Kwon Do, Jujitsu, and the Sufi whirling dervishes among many others. Even forms of ecstatic dance that fell away except for the indigenous cultures and their shamans has arisen anew in popular culture and is thriving due to its capacity to create altered states of consciousness as is the practice of Tantra. While both of these practices have empirical and historical validity they are eschewed by the media and Hollywood as unconscious folly for thrill seekers. This is because an empowered, liberated, creative society would not bode well for the capitalistic enslavement model that is now falling apart at the seams because it no longer serves humanity in the growth of its’ collective consciousness.

No matter which of the infinite number of modalities of movement as medicine you partake of enjoy your journey of the remembrance of your truest nature and the emancipation of your spirit.